User blog:Salnax/Death Battle Trends and "Bias"
With the criticism aimed at Screwattack for their possible biases towards and against certain characters and series, I felt that it was time to take a look at their results as a group. At very least, this can point out recurring patterns. I will be examining several factors for the various combatants. Within each category, the focus will be on characters who have different factors. For example, while Mega Man vs Astro Boy will be noted for having two competing mediums and franchises, the fact that they're both Japanese creations means that they will not be considered for the "Japan vs West" category. Note that this blog is being written as of Episode 66, Tracer vs Scout. The two "rematch" episodes are being overlooked, since they have similar results to the originals. Media Death Battle combatants can theoretically come from any media, but a vast majority of combatants thus far come from a three distinct kinds of media: Anime/Manga, Comic Books, Film, and (most notably) video games. Though there are a few exceptions, such as Harry Potter, Star Wars characters, and various cartoon characters, but these are too rare to seriously investigate. *Anime/Manga - 6 wins, 3 defeats *Comic Books - 5 wins, 3 defeats *Video Games - 4 wins, 10 defeats It should be immediately clear that it sucks to be a video game character fighting against comic and anime characters on Death Battle. Though there are cases where video game characters win (Fox McCloud, Kirby, Raiden, etc), these are notably outnumbered by battles where they fall before characters from Anime and Comics (Kratos, Shadow, Charizard, Dan Hibiki, Mega Man, Tifa Lockhart, Sweet Tooth, etc). My guess is that Anime/Manga and Comics allow for more easy accumulation of powers and feats over time. Furthermore, games are meant to challenge their players, meaning characters may be kept limited to maintain the difficulty. Series Ten series/franchises have made three or more appearences on Death Battle against characters from other series. They are listed below. *''Dragon Ball'' - 2 wins, 2 losses *''DC'' - 4 wins, 5 losses *''Marvel'' - 7 wins, 4 losses *''Mario'' - 3 wins, 3 losses *''Sonic'' - 2 wins, 3 losses, 1 other *''Legend of Zelda'' - 2 wins, 1 loss *''Street Fighter'' - 3 wins, 5 losses *''Mortal Kombat'' - 3 wins, 3 losses *''Killer Instinct'' - 2 wins, 1 loss *''Star Wars'' - 1 win, 2 defeats The main series that stand out here are Marvel for its victories and Street Fighter for its losses. Where the other eight series have imbalances of one more victory or defeat at most, Street Fighter has a high loss rate, while Marvel wins nearly twice as often as it loses. Street Fighter's imbalance can be attributed to the rivalry between that series and Mortal Kombat. Three of those five losses are against MK fighters. Likewise, seven of Marvel's eleven fights have been against DC characters, of which they've won five. If these are disregarded, Marvel has a record of two wins (Thor and Doctor Doom) and two defeats (Wolverine and Beast). The reason behind Mortal Kombat's advantages over Street Fighter is simple enough. Mortal Kombat takes place in a setting where fighters such as gods and demons from various realms do battle with one another. Street Fighter has a core conflict surrounding a powerful crime syndicate. The difference of scale is clear. Marvel's advantage over DC is less clear, seeing how both franchises feature similarly larger than life characters. Honestly, both franchises cover the full scale. If anything, the biggest powerhouses of both series have been largely untapped as of Episode 66. Even casual planet busters (Goku and whatnot) are insignificant compared to Galactus, Thanos and Doctor Strange (Marvel) or Darkseid, Spectre, and Trigon (DC). My best guess is that the specific Marvel vs DC matches are based on attempts to find equivalent characters where they may not exist, at least for the public. Batman lacks an obvious popular Marvel equivalent (nobody knows who Moon Knight is), so he got pitted against Spider-Man as the closest option easily available. Iron Man and Lex Luthor are both mad geniuses with loads of money and power armor, so they are pitted against each other... even though one of them has far more experience as a fighter than the other. It sometimes works the other way around (RIP Quicksilver), but these matches of "similar" characters have seemed to favor Marvel. On an odd note, I noticed that the Sonic series would be performing quite well if it weren't for Shadow's two defeats. Company Setting aside series, a few companies have a major combined presence. Though some companies are predominantly represented by a single series listed above, some deserve another look through a broader lens. *Capcom - 4 wins, 10 losses *Nintendo - 7 wins, 5 losses Capcom's trend of losses is somewhat surprising. Even with the "Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat" trend factored in, there is still an obvious number of losses. Strider Hiryu, Dante, and Blanka won their respective battles, but Dan Hibiki, Dr Wily, Mega Man, Chun Li, and Felicia. Note that Street Fighter continues to perform poorly even against other series, while the entire Mega Man series has lost thus far. Nintendo tends to win slightly more often than not, but has some notable weaknesses. Pokemon has generally performed poorly, with Mewtwo being the only winner from that series. Zelda fares better, but characters from that series are typically matched against Mario characters. If anything, the reason Nintendo does as well as it does is sole representatives from series. Kirby, Samus, and Fox McCloud are the only representatives of their franchises, and have all won their fights. Japan vs West Some have claimed that Death Battle's results have unfairly favored one region of the world over another. In other words, "These guys are weeaboos/Japanophobes." The truth is slightly complicated, thanks in large part to the "Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat" trend mentioned above. Without it, battles of Japanese vs Western characters have 6 wins for Japanese characters and 4 for Western characters. However, with those "Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat" fights factored in, it becomes 7 wins for Japanese characters and 7 for Western characters. It's also important to note that the winners of each camp showed other certain trends. Nintendo characters (Samus, Yoshi, and Fox) won three battles and lost none. Metal Gear was the only Japanese series to boast multiple winners (Solid Snake and Raiden). In contrast, the Western representatives had more diverse origins (Superman, Black Orchid, Toph, Yang, etc). In short, Japanese characters are somewhat favored in general, but not when "Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat" is factored in. Heroes vs Villains Death Battle generally pits similarly heroic or villainous characters against one another. For example, heroes like Mario and Sonic will be matched against one another, while villains like the Joker and Sweet Tooth will be paired together. Out of the 64 distinct battles thus far, only a dozen or so have portrayed characters with disparate moral high grounds. These mostly feature heroes fighting villains and anti-heroes, though there are also a few morally dubious characters who have the clear moral high ground over their foes (Deadpool, Guts, and Akuma). Surprisingly, the relative "Good Guy" wins all but two of these fights. Not only do the previously mentioned antiheroes win, but so does Kirby, Samus, Iron Man, Rainbow Dash, RoboCop, Toph, and so on. The main exceptions are Ryu, who lost to Scorpion, and Gamera, who lost to Godzilla. And even these are losses against morally ambiguous characters with relatively heroic moments. My best guess is that in fiction, bad guys tend to lose, making them less effective fighters by default. Furthermore, since heroes live, they tend to have more time to accumulate powers and feats. Note that many of the villains fought in these battles (Boba Fett, Starscream, Nightmare, the Terminator, and Buu) have onscreen deaths or near-death experiences that remove them from the plot. Other Notes *In battles where female combatants fought male combatants, the female fighter won 5 times and lost 2 times. The only male victors in these fights were Dante and Yoshi. Conclusion *There is a clear trend where video game characters have a disadvantage against counterparts from other media. *''Street Fighter'' has a clear disadvantage against Mortal Kombat. *Capcom characters have a general disadvantage. *''Marvel'' has a clear advantage over DC, and I'm not sure why. *Japanese characters have a slight advantage over Western characters, provided it is not a "Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat" fight. *More heroic characters have a major advantage over villainous characters. Category:Blog posts